In his first cookbook “Heritage,” Virginia-native and James Beard award-winning chef Sean Brock masters making carrots. “I’m pretty crazy about carrots,” says Brock, adding about his tattoo: “My left forearm is nothing but carrots.” —Stefanie Gans
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Meta carrots
“How can I make this so intense that it’ll make you put your fork down and realize that you love carrots?” is what Brock thought about when deciding to cook carrots in their own juice. In a recipe (from “Heritage”) first created in his Charleston restaurant McCrady’s, Brock pushes carrots through a juice extractor and then adds that juice, with the juice of one orange, to a pan of whole carrots and lets the root vegetable braise until it’s in a glaze of its own making. That, says Brock, “is as good as and as interesting and as intense as a meat stock reduction.”
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Like silk
“I like vegetables with dirt still on them,” says Brock. “They just stay so much more vibrant and so much more fresh.” Brock says to check the little thread that grows off the tip of the carrot to find the best ones. “That little thread should be beautiful, like silk.”
Wish
Big guy
In recent years there’s been white and purple carrots showing up at local farmers markets, but they are usually on the precious and petite side—and perfect for showing off at the table. What’s not there: large carrots used every day as the base for stocks and stews. “Nobody is growing, what we call in the industry, horse carrots,” says Brock. “The world would be a much better place if that section of the produce stand was heirloom carrots and not genetically engineered horse carrots.”
(December 2014)
